For colleagues who rarely interact with the end user, the connection between their daily decisions and actions and the experience customers receive can feel remote and intangible.
At GreenSquareAccord (GSA), we wanted to create an experience that didn’t just tell colleagues why customer focus matters, but made them feel it, too. Culture isn’t built in a classroom; it’s shaped by experiences that resonate deeply with our people and make them feel part of something bigger.
Leadership is about inspiring people to understand the bigger picture and empowering them to act with shared goals and behaviours at the forefront of their thinking. Sometimes, that means being creative and stepping away from conventional approaches.
“For those of us in leadership roles, the challenge is clear: how do we create environments in which people feel connected to purpose? How do we turn values into behaviours and behaviours into habits?”
Lifting the lid
Inspired by off-the-shelf murder mystery games, we developed ‘The Trials of Mrs Tranter’ – an immersive engagement exercise that puts colleagues in the role of detectives. Their mission is to unravel a fictional customer complaint based on real-life cases.
Using an evidence pack filled with call recordings, photos, correspondence and system screenshots, teams piece together what went wrong and compare their findings with a Housing Ombudsman-style report. Realism and a grounding in shared reality helped to elevate the activity, demonstrating how every decision – every email, delay or missed detail – can ripple through a customer’s experience.
The activity requires no external facilitation. Its flexibility and scalability means teams can integrate it into their own rhythms – team meetings, away days or informal sessions. Each evidence pack can be reused multiple times.
Since piloting the exercise with our leaders in March 2025, more than 500 colleagues have taken part. The feedback has been fantastic and, while we must continue to track the impact, there is already evidence that our complaint levels have started to reduce in line with this and other work we are doing to improve customer experience. Many colleagues who don’t work in customer-facing roles told us this was the first time they truly understood their influence on outcomes. I’ll never forget watching a finance colleague speak passionately about Mrs Tranter’s negative experience during our pilot session!
Learning through experience
For this to work, it had to feel real. The evidence pack mirrors our systems and templates. The scenario, a damp and mould complaint, reflects a pressing challenge in our sector. Common complaint themes are woven throughout. This authenticity is what makes the exercise powerful. It transforms abstract principles into tangible realities, sparking meaningful conversations and inspiring quick wins and long-term improvements. People don’t just learn what went wrong; they see how small decisions accumulate into significant consequences, and how ownership at every level can prevent those outcomes.
“When we make customer experience real for our colleagues, we make it matter”
So, what does this teach us? It reinforces that leadership isn’t about hierarchy; it’s about influence. When colleagues see how their actions shape customer outcomes, they step into a leadership mindset. They take ownership. They lead from where they are.
It also shows that creativity drives engagement. By adapting a popular gaming concept, we engaged hundreds of colleagues for a fraction of the cost of traditional training. Creativity isn’t a luxury; it’s a leadership imperative.
Finally, it proves that people connect with stories, not slides. They learn through experience, not instruction. When we make the customer experience real, we make it matter, and that’s when culture shifts.
The bigger picture
The success of ‘The Trials of Mrs Tranter’ has rippled beyond GSA. After sharing the concept on LinkedIn, I was inundated with responses. I’ve since spoken to at least 20 housing associations and three have already adopted the approach.
We’re now harnessing the energy created by this exercise to drive broader improvements in customer experience at GSA. Mrs Tranter may be fictional, but her legacy is real. She’s helping us build a culture in which every colleague understands their role in delivering great outcomes.
For those of us in leadership roles, the challenge is clear: how do we create environments in which people feel connected to purpose? How do we turn values into behaviours and behaviours into habits?
The answer lies in experiences that resonate, conversations that matter and creativity that inspires. Leadership isn’t about telling people what to do; it’s about helping them see why it matters and giving them the tools to act. Sometimes, that tool looks like a policy. Sometimes, it looks like a game. What matters is the impact. The main lesson from this project is that when we make it real, we make it matter.
Steve Hayes is director of corporate affairs and communications at GreenSquareAccord (GSA), which provides affordable houses across the West Midlands and South West. GSA was a runner-up in the IoL Digital Leader Award 2025.
